To mark the Fourth of July, write a letter, a poem, a song, a rant, a plea to this land. Begin with Dear America ... (This challenge was first published on this site last year. See the responses from 2018, and sprout from them or start your own 2019 version.)(Illustration credit: YWP Photo Library, Sophie D.)

except those we have deemed not good enoughnot strongbeautifulworthy enough

to make the american dreama sweet one again.

nightmares wake us up,and once we are wokewe stand united.

patriotism never meant an undying support for our country.

it's the things we truly love that challenge us most.

maybe that's why we need to be willing to fight.

redefine patriotism, america.determine it to mean not pure devoitionbut more simply a willingness to fight against the path our country choosesin order to build us back up as we fall.turn our fear into hopehate into loveand silence into actions.

Dear America,What would have happened if we never stole this land?Never polluted it with our cold superiority,our ships swarming with sickly death,our flashing bullets thirsting for blood.

If the people native to this land,who tended it as a arboreous, continental garden,were allowed to remain, in entirety?

Rather than as the scattered splintersof the last tree standingin a sacred forest,burned to the groundby the unquenchable flames of greed.Dear Europe,how do you feel that your reckless descendantshave polluted The New Worldworse than the old?

That they have crushed it beneath hundreds, thousands, 6.5 million pairsof heeled boots and polished dress shoes,stilettos and Nikes,

Toppling the refuge of ancient forests,Soiling the clear waters with the mud caking their soles,